Study: Social networking sites top competitors for breaking news in UK

Posted by Savita Sauvin on August 13, 2010 at 4:09 PM

Social networking sites are now competing with news publishers as sources of breaking news and information, new research from UK firm iCD shows, Journalism.co.uk reported today.

High usership of social networks, combined with aggregated and personalised news streams on Facebook and Twitter, had led to this trend. According to the study, which polled 1,000 people in United Kingdom, the top destination for news seekers was the BBC's website, where 50.4 percent of people said go to for breaking news. In second place was social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, at 18.5 percent, and in third place was SKY news, at 18.1 percent.

Graph: Journalism.co.uk

The study showed that a slightly higher percent of female users go to social networking sites as an informative resource.

Among national newspapers, the most preferred newspaper, and in fourth place overall, was the Daily Mail (12.8), followed by The Sun (7.1 percent), the Daily Telegraph (6.7 percent), the Guardian (5.9 percent), The Times (5.4 percent), the Daily Mirror (3.4 percent), The Independent (3.2 percent), the Financial Times (2.8 percent), the Daily Express (2.7 percent), The Evening Standard (2.7 percent) and News of the World (2.4 percent).

Meanwhile, 3.5 percent chose blogs and 3.3 percent choose RSS feeds as a way to receive the latest news updates. Another 27.6 percent said they do not get their news from the Internet.

The research also found that the top social networking sites used by people in the United Kingdom are Facebook (60 percent), Friends Reunited (33 percent), and Twitter (10 percent), according to PC Advisor.